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Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
685
A CONCEPTUAL COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE QUALITY ASSURANCE MODEL
Tshilidzi Eric Nenzhelele*
Abstract
Competitive Intelligence (CI) improves the quality of product and service, decision-making and it improves quality of life. However, it has been established that decision makers are not happy about the quality of CI. This is because enterprises fail in quality assurance of CI. It has been concluded that most enterprises are clueless concerning CI quality assurance. Studies that previously attempted to resolve CI quality problem were limited in scope and focused too much on the quality of information than the overall CI quality. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual CI quality assurance model which will help in quality assurance of CI. The research was qualitative in nature and used content analysis**. Keywords: Competitive Intelligence, Quality Assurance, Information *Department of Business Management, UNISA, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria, 0003 Tel: +27 12 429 3756 Fax +27 86 694 6436 ** This work is based on the research supported by the National Research Foundation. The author would also like to acknowledge the University of South Africa (South Africa) for the funding and support without which this research would not have been possible.
1 Introduction
CI provides competitive advantage to firms and it
helps in making quality decisions (Bartes, 2014a).
Moreover, CI helps to improve product or service
quality and the overall quality of life (Maune, 2014;
Du Toit and Sewdass, 2014). To achieve all these
benefits of CI, firms have acknowledged the need to
improve the quality of CI (Du Toit, 2013; Maune,
2014). Quality decisions are made from quality CI and
performance of firms rely on the quality of CI (Du
Toit, 2003; Sewlal, 2004). Moreover, quality of CI is
very important for monitoring competition (Santos
and Correia, 2010). In addition, CI professionals are
satisfied when they produce quality CI (Gaidelys and
Valodkiene, 2011). Moreover, it is quality CI that
offers competitive advantage (Khezerloo, 2013). On
the other hand, decisions which are made based on CI
that has not been assessed for quality can have
detrimental consequences (Wright, Bisson and Duffy,
2012). CI has to be of quality or there is no point in
having it (Jucevičius and Galbuogienė, 2012). There is
demand for quality CI because the prosperity of
countries depend on it (Ishaya and Folarin, 2012;
Fernandez, 2014). However, top management and
decision makers are not happy about the quality of CI
(Venter and Tustin, 2009). This is because firms fail to
assess quality of CI and tend to act immediately upon
receiving the intelligence (Wright, Eid and Fleisher,
2009). CI professionals tend to spend too much time
collecting information than quality assuring CI (Calof
and Skinner, 1999). Some CI staffs do not have the
expertise in identifying quality source of information
and analysis of information (Tsitoura and Stephens,
2012). Junior CI staffs have been excluded from
senior management meeting and this has a negative
effect on the quality of CI (Tsitoura and Stephens,
2012). Firms have been too focused on the quality of
information and not CI quality (Lukman, Hackey,
Popovic, Jaklic and Irani, 2011). Firms are clueless
about how to improve the quality of CI (Du Toit,
2013). There is therefore a need to study how to
enhance quality of CI (Jin and Ju, 2014). The purpose
of this study is to propose a conceptual CI quality
assurance model after analysing the existing literature
and establishing factors that influence the quality of
CI.
2 Literature review
2.1 Definition of competitive intelligence
There are so many definitions of CI in the literature
(Weiss and Naylor, 2010). Some scholars define CI as
a product and some as a process (Brody, 2008).
Roitner (2008) concludes that CI is both a product and
a process. Most of these definitions differ because
change of words, use of synonyms and emphasis
(Brody, 2008). It has been argued that CI practitioners
are too busy, therefore they do not have time to define
CI (Fleisher and Wright, 2009). The existence of so
many definitions in the field of CI creates confusion
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
686
among scholars and practitioners (Colakoglu, 2011). It
also makes CI to be a practice with unstable borders
(Haddadi, Dousset and Berrada, 2010). Due to lack of
agreement on the definition of CI, it has been
confused with industrial espionage (Colakoglu, 2011).
However, CI is different from industrial espionage
because CI is legal and ethical (Haliso and Aina,
2012). Having realised the problem of endless
definitions, Pellissier and Nenzhelele (2013a)
analysed fifty CI definitions to establish commonality
and differences in order to propose a comprehensive
and universally acceptable definition. Pellissier and
Nenzhelele (2013a) define CI as ‘a process or practice
that produces and disseminates actionable intelligence
by planning, ethically and legally collecting,
processing and analysing information from and about
the internal and external or competitive environment
in order to help decision-makers in decision-making
and to provide a competitive advantage to the
enterprise.’ This definition will be used for the
purpose of this study.
2.2 Evolution of competitive intelligence
CI evolves from economics, marketing, military
theory, information science and library and strategic
management (Juhari and Stephens, 2006; Deng and
Luo, 2010). Governments of countries rely on
intelligence for protection of their citizens (Deng and
Luo, 2010). Marketing departments of firms all over
the world rely on intelligence for marketing, pricing
and promotion of their products or services (Nasri and
Zarai, 2013). Libraries rely on intelligence for quality
sources of information for scholars (Fleisher, 2004).
Strategists rely on intelligence to anticipate and
prepare for future competition (Barrett, 2010).
CI has been around longer than the first time it
was officially practiced in business and recorded in
the literature (Juhari and Stephens, 2006). Since its
inception, CI has been practiced by public, private,
for-profit and non-profit, large and small
organisations. While CI is a relatively new business
discipline, it is evolving in complexity and importance
to keep pace with rapid business development
(Heppes, and Du Toit, 2009). Due to its benefits, more
organisations are practicing CI either formally or
informally (Nenzhelele, 2012).
Post-apartheid, South African firms have been
exposed to global competition (Pellissier and
Nenzhelele, 2013). To survive in the midst of global
competition, South African firms are practicing CI
(Du Toit and Sewdass, 2014). This is confirmed by
Muller (2006) who points out that CI took root in
South Africa in the mid-1990s and early-2000s. CI in
South Africa emerged from the business sector
(Heppes and Du Toit, 2009). Although South African
firms have been inward looking, they are starting to
realise the importance of CI from year to year
(Adidam, Gajre and Kejriwal, 2009). De Pelsmacker,
Muller, Viviers, Saayman, Cuyvers and Jegers (2005)
point out that enterprises that formally practice CI are
growing in numbers and that CI is especially strong in
the banking sector, the information technology sector,
the telecommunications sector and the electric supply
sector. Although CI practice has been widely reported
for large organisations, Nenzhelele (2012) establishes
that smaller enterprises in South Africa are also
practicing CI. Although CI has been widely practiced
in South Africa for for-profit organisations, there is
lack of report of CI practice on non-profit
organisations (Sewdass and Du Toit, 2014).
2.3 Competitive intelligence needs
Managers are paying more attention to CI and as a
result there is a growing desire to fulfil CI needs
(Barnea, 2014; Lin and Yan-Zhang, 2015). The end
product of CI must satisfy the needs of decision
makers and trigger new intelligence needs (Bartes,
2014a; Pinto, 2014). In order to have a clear,
unambiguous and easy to understand intelligence
needs there need to be a two-way communication
between the CI unit and the decision makers (Nasri
and Zarai, 2013; Du Toit and Sewdass, 2014). Formal
meetings must be organised for CI practitioners and
decision makers to discuss the intelligence needs
(Bartes, 2014b). Decision makers have plenty of
intelligence needs and these needs must be
differentiated from information needs, prioritized and
translated into Key Intelligence Topics (KITs)
(Prescott, 1999; Degaut, 2015). KITs are those
decision-based, strategic issues about which managers
must be regularly informed to set and implement
strategy (Herring, 1999). CI is aimed at answering
KITs (Bartes, 2014b). According to Herring (1999),
only intelligence needs that are of highest priority and
key to the success of the organisation must be fulfilled
with the scarce resources. KITs are established and
clearly defined during the planning phase of the CI
process (Bulley, Baku and Allan, 2014; Yassine,
2014). KITs can come from different level of
management such as strategic, functional and tactical
(McGonagle and Vella, 2012).Quality CI depends on
clearly defined and unambiguous KITs (Nasri, 2011;
Bartes, 2014b).
According to Barnea (2014), KITs must cover
world competition, tactical and strategic issues instead
of just local competition and tactical issues. It is
impossible to gain competitive advantage from CI
without clearly defined KITs (Barnea, 2014).
According to Herring (1999), there are three
categories of KITs, namely strategic decisions and
actions, topics requiring early warning and profiles,
characteristics and descriptions of the key players.
Strategic decision and actions category includes the
development of strategic plans and strategies. Early
warning topics category includes competitor
initiatives, technological surprise and government
actions. Descriptions of key players include
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
687
competitors, customers, suppliers, regulators, and
potential partners.
2.4 Competitive intelligence process
It has been widely accepted that CI is a process or
practice which follows predetermined phases (Du Toit
and Sewdass, 2014). CI process has been portrayed as
a circle to indicate that is continuous and that the end
product of one phase is the input of the next phase
(Calof and Skinner, 1998). There are influential
factors that play a role during the CI process (Bartes,
2014). Figure 1 shows the CI process. The CI process
is made up of the following steps (Pellissier and
Nenzhelele, 2013):
Planning and direction: The intelligence
requirements of the decision makers are defined in this
phase. The intelligence requirements are narrowed
down into KITs. KITs are topics which are significant
to the organisation’s decision makers and give
directions to CI operations. The KITs must be clear
and ease to understand. The KITs must be converted
into information requirements and the source of
information be clearly outlined. The purpose for
conducting CI is defined in this phase. The
participants, resources required and recipients of the
actionable CI are clearly identified in this phase.
Information collection: quality information is
collected during this phase. Information must be
collected legally and ethically. The information
collectors must comply with the CI code of ethics.
Efforts must be exercised to collect information from
public sources. Information collected must meet the
KITs. Information can be collected from internal or
external sources.
Information sorting, capturing and storing:
Collected information must be sorted, captured and
stored. Related information must be sorted and
captured together. Information must be stored in files
which are easily accessible by all permitted users. The
information must be stored in secured storage media.
Information analysis: This is the most important
phase of the CI process and can be challenging. It is
recommended that this phase be conducted by an
experienced CI practitioner. That way the outcome of
this phase will be quality actionable intelligence. The
CI practitioner must during this phase be in constant
communication with the decision makers to ensure
that their intelligence requirements are met. Different
analysis techniques should be considered and those
that are relevant be used to produce intelligence that
meet the KITs.
Intelligence dissemination: Quality actionable CI
is communicated to the decision makers during this
phase. Care must be given to ensure that safe and
secure means of communication are used. CI must be
communicated to the correct users of it. CI must be
communicated on time or else it is no longer
intelligence. There are different methods of
communicating CI. These methods must be considered
and the best method is selected and used.
Decision makers: Decision makers are the users
of actionable CI. They are the initiators of the CI
process. Decision makers are responsible for coming
up with intelligence requirements. They have an
important influence over the CI process. They
therefore should be consulted throughout the CI
process. This is to establish whether their intelligence
needs have changed during the CI process. If the
intelligence needs have changed, adjustments must be
made and relevant information must be sourced to
produce relevant intelligence.
Process and structure: The CI process is
influenced by policies, procedures, code of ethics, and
structures within the organisation. The CI practitioners
must ensure that they comply with policies,
procedures and code of ethics while conducting CI.
Failure by CI practitioners to comply may put the
organisation in to disrepute. It may also lead to legal
consequences. Therefore, organisations that practice
CI must include CI code of ethics in their policies and
code of ethics. A formal CI function and process will
ensure that CI is of quality.
Organisational awareness and culture: A culture
of CI awareness and competitiveness will ensure that
CI is performed optimally. It will also lead to
production of quality CI. Organisations must raise CI
awareness to all employees. Employees who are aware
of CI will not give information to competitors cheaply.
Moreover, employees who are aware of CI will help in
the CI process. Organisations must train and educate
employees on CI and its benefits to the organisation.
This will reduce the CI challenges and help in the
smooth development of CI.
Feedback: This is an influential factor in the CI
process. There should be a continuous feedback
throughout the CI process. CI practitioners must
continually communicate with the decision makers to
ensure that relevant and actionable CI is produced.
Constant feedback ensures timely adjustments to KIT.
Constant feedback throughout the CI process will help
to produce quality CI.
2.5 Competitive intelligence quality assurance
Sanyal and Martin (2011) define quality as ‘providing
excellence; being exceptional, providing value for
money, conforming to specifications, getting things
right the first time, meeting customer’s needs, having
zero defects, providing added value, exhibiting fitness
of purpose, and exhibiting fitness for purpose.’
Quality assurance is defined by Dunckley and Elta
(2011) as ‘a process of monitoring and assessing a
product, services or process to ensure that it is of
sufficient quality.’ The purpose of quality assurance is
to ensure that each phase in a process is fulfilling its
objectives and ensuring that the whole process is of
quality and to ensure this happens, there must be
quality checks, validation and verification and
communication of the results (Eriksson and Motte,
2013).
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
688
Figure 3. Competitive Intelligence Process
Source: Pellissier and Nenzhelele 2013
It is quality CI that offers competitive advantage,
helps in making quality decisions, improves the
quality of products or services, and improves the
overall quality of life (Campos, Rubio and Quintero,
2014; Du Toit and Sewdass, 2014; Maune, 2014;
Mojarad, Zangeneh and Azad, 2014). Quality CI
ensures decision makers do not avoid responsibility
(Fleisher and Wright, 2010). Quality CI helps produce
quality strategic plans (Haataja 2011). Firms stop
investing in CI when CI produced lacks quality
(Sewlal, 2004; Shih, Liu and Hsu, 2010). Therefore
quality should be the ultimate goal of CI practice
(Bartes, 2011). Whilst firms have acknowledged the
need to improve CI quality, they are clueless about
quality assurance (Du Toit, 2013). Firms needs clue
on how to quality assure CI (Jin and Ju, 2014). Since
the phases of CI are interconnected, all the phases
must be quality assured (Gaspareniene, Remeikiene
and Gaidelys, 2013).
2.5.1 Quality competitive intelligence
Quality is the critical success factor of CI (Sewlal,
2004). According to Teo and Choo (2001) and Sewlal
(2004), quality CI has the following characteristics:
accuracy, usability, clarity, depth, relevance;
responsiveness; timeous; and comprehensiveness.
Nasri (2011) describes the characteristics of quality CI
as follows:
Accuracy: the intelligence must be accurate
Clarity: the intelligence must be clear and
understandable by the users/decision makers
Usability: the intelligence must be usable or
actionable
Depth: intelligence must be sufficient to help
the decision makers to make a decision
Relevance: intelligence must fulfil key
intelligence topics
Responsiveness: the intelligence system must
be able give feedback timeously when there is an
intelligence request.
Timely: intelligence must be disseminated
timeously to decision makers.
2.5.2 Competitive intelligence professionals
Firms rely on the CI professionals for the production
of quality CI (Tsitoura and Stephens, 2012; Gurses
and Kunday, 2014). To produce quality CI, CI
professionals should have formal training in CI (Jin
and Ju 2014). Jin and Ju (2014) argue that CI quality
increases when CI professionals are experienced in
practicing CI. They further state that the personality
traits of CI professional are very vital for
improvement of CI quality. CI professionals should
have the right skills for CI practice, namely ability to
provide quality service, professionalism and ability to
share intelligence (Bexon, Stephens and Pritchett,
2002). According to Elken (1998), CI professionals
should have the following skills: information handling
skills, training and facilitating skills, evaluation skills
and concern for customer. CI professionals should
have relevant skills in order to enhance the speed of
gathering information, dissemination of intelligence
and improvement of quality in CI (Calof and Skinner,
1999). They must further create a culture of verifying
and validating information collected for CI. According
to Xinzhou, Qiang and Anqi (2012), CI professionals
must be industry experts in order to filter information
and information sources. According to the Michaeli
and Simon (2008), CI professionals should be able to
judge misinformation. Leaders of the CI units must
take all necessary steps to ensure that CI is of quality
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
689
(Tsitoura and Stephens, 2012). Moreover, CI staffs are
a key issue in identifying quality source of
information and credibility. CI professionals must
know the weakness and strengths of CI tools in order
determine CI quality (Sewdass, 2012). However, firms
do not appoint CI professionals and therefore lack
formal CI procedures (Gatsoris, 2012).
2.5.3 Key intelligence topics
CI professionals rely on the KITs to produce quality
CI (Herring, 1999). Quality CI depends on clearly
defined and unambiguous KITs (Nasri, 2011; Bartes,
2014b). KITs must be subjected to the following
aspects: unambiguous; must be complete; not
repeating; clearly stated and understandable; traceable;
clearly updated; and verifiable (Ejaz, Nazmeen and
Zafar, 2010). Good communication between CI
professionals and decision makers has a positive
influence on CI quality (Capatina and Vanderlinden,
2012; Arcos, 2013). KITs must be discussed in a
formal meeting (Bartes, 2014b). Any change in KITs
must be communicated to CI professionals
immediately to ensure quality of CI (Yassine, 2014).
According to Herring (1999), only intelligence needs
that are of highest priority and key to the success of
the organisation must be fulfilled with the scarce
resources.
2.5.4 Information collection
It is widely accepted that quality CI depends on
quality information (Shi, Mou and Wan, 2009; Al-
Debei, 2011; Farrokhi and Pokoradi, 2012; Bartes,
2014a; Barnea, 2014). Information quality is a critical
success factor for CI (Gurses and Kunday, 2014).
Information should therefore be of high quality to
produce quality CI (Haddadi and Dousset, 2010).
Information must be checked and evaluated for quality
before it is collected (Wee and LengLeow, 1994;
Haataja, 2011; Zhao and Jin, 2010; Dey, Haque,
Khurdiya and Shroff, 2011; Michaeli and Simon,
2008; Nasri and Zarai, 2013; Gainor and Bouthillier,
2014). Nasri (2012) and Du Toit and Sewdass (2014)
conclude that quality CI requires quality information.
Quality information refers to the value of information
to the user (Wandersman, Chien and Katz, 2012).
Quality information has the following characteristics:
relevancy, accuracy, reliability and timeliness (Garcia-
Alsina, Ortoll and Cobarsi’-Morales, 2013). Quality
information for CI is that which is collected legally
and ethically (Rapp, Agnihotri, Baker and Andzulis,
2014; Bartes, 2014). High quality information is
accurate, up-to-date, timely and reliable (Yaya,
Achonna and Osisanwo, 2014). Gurses and Kunday
(2014) conclude that information that is not of quality
is misleading.
Information sources must be evaluated for
quality (Gainor and Bouthillier, 2014). Sources of
information must be clearly defined in terms of the
volume, quantity, quality, access and ease of
processing and cost (Nasri, 2012; Bulley, Baku and
Allan, 2014). Regarding the sources of information,
the following should be considered in order to achieve
CI quality: price, quality, selection, service, location,
reliability and stability (Priyanka, Rajagopal and
Thiyagarajan, 2014). Information sourced from within
the organisation tends to be of high quality (Gurses
and Kunday, 2014). However, third party information
should be questioned for quality (McGonagle and
Vella, 2012). Teo and Choo (2001), Muller (2007),
Haataja (2011) and Maune (2014) conclude that
internet as a source of information for CI has a
positive impact on the quality of CI. However, Wolter
(2011) warns that information collected from the
internet must be questioned for quality and reliability.
The internet must be used with care in order to
produce quality CI (Shi, Mou and Wan, 2009). The
internet tends to have information overload and
information overload negatively affect quality of it
(Dou, Hassanaly, Quoniam and Tela, 1993).
2.5.5 Information analysis
Without information analysis there is no CI (Calof and
Skinner, 1999). Without quality information analysis,
there is no quality CI (Dai, Kakkonen and Sutinen,
2011). CI professionals must have good analytical
skills (Adidam, Banerjee and Shukla, 2012; Gaidelys
and Meidute, 2012; Sewdass, 2012). Preventive tools
should be used to avoid mistakes during information
analysis (Michaeli and Simon, 2008). Due to overload
of information with questionable quality, information
analysis must be thorough to ensure CI quality (Dou,
Hassanaly, Quoniam and Tela, 1993). Information
analysis is a critical phase of CI and has a huge impact
on the quality of CI (Dai, Kakkonen and Sutineh,
2011; Adidam, Banerjee and Shukla, 2012). CI analyst
must be involved in information collection, learn from
errors and must earn trust from decision makers
(Fleisher and Wright, 2010). They should not
intimidate decision makers with intelligence but entice
them (Fleisher and Wright, 2010). There should be
more investment in information analysis in order to
produce quality CI (Fleisher and Wright, 2010).
Anything that would reduce the quality of analysis
must be avoided (Gaidelys and Meidute, 2012).
2.5.6 Intelligence dissemination
Only quality assured CI should be disseminated to
decision makers (Chiu, Chen and Chang, 2010).
According to Agnihotri (2009), the speed and
frequency of CI dissemination has an influence on the
quality of CI. Moreover, CI that is disseminated late
has no quality (Agnihotri, 2009). Lack of proper
intelligence dissemination methods affects CI quality
(Calof and Skinner, 1999). Dissemination methods
must be secured and only accessible by authorised
users (Nasri, 2011). CI must be disseminated using
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
690
methods that are regularly accessed by the decision
makers to ensure that it is received on time (Fleisher
and Wright, 2010).
2.5.7 Competitive intelligence unit and its location
The CI unit has the responsibility to quality control CI
and it must ensure that everyone involved in the CI
process is well trained (Haataja, 2011). The CI unit
must constantly monitor the efforts and quality of their
employees and evaluate the feedback received from
decision makers (Simon, 1998). The CI unit must
reward employees who produce quality CI (Sawka,
2010). When there are rewards for practicing CI,
quality of CI improves (Sawka, 2010; Roche and
Blaine, 2015). The location of CI unit plays a critical
role in the quality of CI (Nasri and Zarai, 2013). CI
unit must be located independently to avoid biasness
and ensure quality (Saayman, Pienaar; De Pelsmacker,
Viviers, Cuyvers and Muller, 2008). Most
organisations locate their CI in the marketing/sales
function. This makes CI to focus on sales and
marketing and ignore strategic issues of the firm
(Nenzhelele, 2012). According to Sawka (2010),
decentralisation of CI has a negative impact on the
quality of CI. This is because unqualified people
practice CI.
2.5.8 Other competitive intelligence quality
influential factors
Management support for CI has a positive impact on
the quality of CI (Guynes and Cappel, 1999).
Managers who support CI invest money to ensure that
CI is of highest quality (Hesford, 2008). They evaluate
the end product of CI (Blenkhorn and Fleisher, 2007).
Firms that have management support for CI tend to
practice CI formally (Bulley, Baku and Allan, 2014).
Formal practice improves the quality of CI whereas
informal practice compromises the quality of CI (Fatti
and Du Toit, 2013; Mojarad, Zangeneh and Azad,
2014). Firms that practice CI formally have an
organisational culture and constantly raise awareness
for CI (Nasri, 2012; Barnea, 2014). CI awareness
helps to improve the quality of CI and avoid
employees from being misled by competitors (Singh
and Vij, 2012; Wright, Bisson and Duffy, 2012).
Stored information must only be accessed by
authorised users to ensure it remains unaltered
(Pellissier and Nenzhelele, 2013).
3 Methodology
This research was qualitative by nature. A total of 743
sources inclusive of journal articles, books, conference
proceedings and papers were reviewed for the purpose
of this research. The following keywords were used to
extract relevant sources: competitive intelligence;
competitive intelligence quality; quality; and quality
assurance. Sources extracted range from 1993 to 2015.
To identify relevant literature, academic databases and
search engines were used. A review of references in
extracted sources led to more relevant sources. To
ensure reliability, only peer-reviewed sources were
used. The literature review was conducted between the
years 2011 and 2015. The contents of the extracted
sources were analysed with the aim of establishing the
factors that influence the quality of CI.
4 Results
From the CI literature discussed above, the influential
factors for CI quality in table 1 have been identified.
5 Discussion
CI is a critical success factor for firms around the
world. For this reason, firms practice CI. However,
quality is a serious concern for CI practice. This is
because firms are clueless about how to improve the
quality of CI. Firms are looking for ways to improve
the quality of CI. It is quality CI that provides
competitive advantage and aid in decision making.
Quality CI helps to improve products and services
quality and the quality of life. Management support CI
practice when it produces quality CI. Firms have to
perform quality assurance of CI. They have to be
aware of factors that influence the quality of CI.
The CI process should be quality assured to
ensure that it produces quality CI. Every phase of the
CI process should be quality assured. Many scholars
conclude that CI professionals play a critical role in CI
quality assurance. They advise that firms should
appoint qualified CI professionals. Moreover, scholars
recommend that CI professionals should be
experienced and constantly trained to produce quality
CI. They advise that CI professionals should ensure
that KITs from decision makers are clearly defined
and unambiguous and that they should setup formal
meeting with decision makers, prioritise KITs and
maintain constant communication with decision
makers. This ensures that any changes in KITs are
communicated immediately when they happen.
After KITs have been clearly defined and
prioritised, quality information must be collected.
Scholars conclude that information is of quality when
it is collected ethically and legally. They advise that
information and all sources of information for CI
should be quality checked and evaluated. They plead
that information collected for CI should be accurately
sorted, captured and securely stored. Only authorised
users should access information stored for CI.
According to scholars, this ensures that information is
not altered or deleted by unauthorised individuals.
Stored information is analysed to produce actionable
intelligence. To ensure that produced CI is of quality,
scholars recommend that CI analysts should be
involved in information collection and have analytical
skills. They also advise that information analysis
should be thorough in order to produce CI of high
quality.
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
691
Table 5. Competitive intelligence quality influential factors
Factor Sub-factor Source
CI
professionals
CI professionals should have
formal training in CI
Jin and Ju (2014); Bexon, Stephens and Pritchett
(2002); Elken (1998); Calof and Skinner (1999);
Xinzhou, Qiang and Anqi (2012); Michaeli and Simon
(2008); Tsitoura and Stephens (2012); Sewdass (2012)
CI professionals should be
experienced in CI practice
Jin and Ju (2014)
Firms should appoint qualified CI
professionals
Gatsoris (2012)
Key
Intelligence
Topics (KITs)
KITs should be clearly defined and
unambiguous
Nasri (2011); Bartes (2014b); Herring (1999); Ejaz,
Nazmeen and Zafar (2010)
KITs should be discussed in a
formal meeting between CI
professionals and decision makers
Capatina and Vanderlinden (2012); Arcos (2013);
Bartes (2014b)
Changes in KITs are communicate
to CI professionals by decision
makers immediately when they
happen
Yassine (2014)
KITs are prioritised Herring (1999)
Information
collection
Information is collected legally and
ethically
Nasri (2011); Rapp, Agnihotri, Baker and Andzulis
(2014); Bartes (2014)
Information sources should be
quality checked and evaluated
Gainor and Bouthillier (2014); Nasri (2012); Bulley,
Baku and Allan (2014); Priyanka, Rajagopal and
Thiyagarajan (2014); Gurses and Kunday (2014);
McGonagle and Vella (2012); Teo and Choo (2001),
Muller (2007), Haataja (2011); Maune (2014); Wolter
(2011); Shi, Mou and Wan (2009); Dou, Hassanaly,
Quoniam and Tela (1993); Dai, Kakkonen and Sutinen
(2011)
Information should be quality
checked and evaluated
Shi, Mou and Wan (2009); Al-Debei (2011); Farrokhi
and Pokoradi (2012); Bartes (2014); Barnea (2014);
Gurses and Kunday (2014); Haddadi and Dousset
(2010); Nasri (2012); Du Toit and Sewdass (2014);
Wandersman, Chien and Katz (2012); Garcia-Alsina,
Ortoll and Cobarsi’-Morales (2013); Yaya, Achonna
and Osisanwo (2014); Gurses and Kunday (2014);
Wee and LengLeow (1994); Haataja (2011); Zhao and
Jin (2010); Dey, Haque, Khurdiya and Shroff (2011);
Michaeli and Simon (2008); Nasri and Zarai (2013);
Gainor and Bouthillier (2014)
Information
sorting,
capturing and
storage
Collected information should be
accurately sorted, captured and
securely stored
Pellissier and Nenzhelele (2013)
Information
analysis
CI professionals should have good
analytical skills
Adidam, Banerjee and Shukla (2012); Gaidelys and
Meidute (2012); Sewdass (2012); Michaeli and Simon
(2008)
Information analysis should be
thorough
Dou, Hassanaly, Quoniam and Tela (1993); Dai,
Kakkonen and Sutineh (2011); Adidam, Banerjee and
Shukla (2012); Fleisher and Wright (2010); Gaidelys
and Meidute (2012)
CI analyst must be involved in
information collection
Fleisher and Wright (2010)
Intelligence
dissemination
Intelligence should be disseminated
timeously
Agnihotri (2009)
Intelligence should be disseminated
through secure and regularly
accessible methods
Calof and Skinner (1999); Nasri (2011); Fleisher and
Wright (2010)
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
692
Table 6. Competitive intelligence quality influential factors (continued)
Factor Sub-factor Source
CI unit and
location
CI unit should ensure that everyone
involved in the CI process is well
trained
Haataja (2011)
CI unit must constantly monitor the
efforts and quality of their
employees and evaluate feedback
received from decision makers
Simon (1998)
CI unit should reward employees
who produce quality CI
Sawka (2010); Roche and Blaine (2015)
CI unit should be located
independently
Nasri and Zarai (2013); Saayman, Pienaar; De
Pelsmacker, Viviers, Cuyvers and Muller (2008);
Nenzhelele (2012); Sawka (2010)
Management
support
Management should support CI
practice
Guynes and Cappel (1999); Hesford (2008);
Blenkhorn and Fleisher (2007)
Formalisation
of CI practice
CI should be practiced formally Bulley, Baku and Allan (2014); Fatti and Du Toit
(2013); Mojarad, Zangeneh and Azad (2014)
CI awareness CI awareness should be raised
throughout the organisation
Nasri (2012); Barnea (2014); Singh and Vij (2012);
Wright, Bisson and Duffy (2012)
Produced actionable intelligence should be
disseminated to decision makers. Quality CI is that
which is disseminated to decision makers timeously.
When intelligence is disseminated late, it lacks quality
and it is therefore useless. To ensure quality, scholars
recommend that CI should be disseminated using
secure and regularly accessible dissemination method.
This ensures that intelligence is accessed by the right
people at the right time. Therefore, the CI unit must
ensure that everyone involved in CI practice is well
trained to produce and disseminate quality CI.
Scholars conclude that the CI unit should reward
employees who produce quality CI. Moreover,
scholars advise that CI unit should be located
independently to avoid biasness. The CI unit should
evaluate the feedback of decision makers and
incorporate it the CI process.
To ensure quality, scholars commend that the CI
unit should be supported by management. This is
because management invest in CI as a way to show
support. This makes formalisation of CI easier and
formalisation improves the quality of CI. To ensure
quality of CI, scholars conclude that firms should
continuously raise awareness of CI throughout the
organisation. All these CI quality influential factors
are incorporated into the CI process model to produce
the CI quality assurance model in figure 1 below. The
sub-factors are included as questions in the model. CI
is of high quality when the answers to all the questions
are yes and it is of low quality when the answers are
no.
6 Conclusion
Whilst there are concerns about the quality of CI, the
quality of CI can be improved. This can be done
through quality assurance. Firms must consider all
factors that affect quality when practising CI. They
must appoint and train qualified and experienced CI
professionals. Firms must ensure that KITs are clearly
defined, unambiguous, prioritised and discussed in
formal meetings. Moreover, firms must ensure that
changes in KITs are communicated to CI professionals
immediately when they happen. In addition, firms
should ensure that information and information
sources are quality checked and evaluated. They
should ensure that information is collected legally and
ethically. CI professionals should ensure that collected
information is accurately sorted, captured and securely
stored.
Firms can quality assures CI by ensuring that
information is analysed by qualified analysts who
have been involved in information collection. The
quality of CI is assured when it is disseminated
timeously through secured and regularly accessible
dissemination methods. Firms should ensure that
every employee involved in CI development is well
trained, evaluated and rewarded for quality CI.
Moreover the CI unit should evaluate the feedback
from decision makers and incorporate it into the CI
process. Managers of firms must support CI practice.
Firms must practice CI formally and continually raise
CI awareness. The implementation of the proposed CI
quality assurance model in figure 1 will improve the
quality of CI, ensure continual support from
management and continual practice of CI.
Journal of Governance and Regulation / Volume 4, Issue 4, 2015, Continued - 6
693
Figure 4. Competitive intelligence quality assurance conceptual model
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